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Prevention Of Sexual Harassment At Workplaces

Govt yet to make law despite HC verdict

Published : Sunday, 17 October, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 374

Despite having a High Court verdict, the government has not formulated any law to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and educational institutions in the last 12 years.
Two drafts of law had been placed earlier before the authorities concerned by the Law Commission and a Gender Platform, consisting of nine organisations with the aim of enacting a comprehensive law but the law has not yet seen the face of light.
On May 13 in 2009, the HC delivered 11 specific directives to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and in educational institutions following a
writ petition, filed by the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA).
The HC directed the government to make a law on the basis of the guidelines and ruled that the guidelines will be treated as law until the law is finalised.
Sources said the draft placed by the gender platform is now in the National Human Rights Commission Bangladesh (NHRC) for its finalisation. A six-member committee led by NHRC member Jesmin Ara Begum is working on the draft. After finalisation the revised draft it will be submitted to the concerned ministry.
 Due to the lack of the law, women are facing indecent comments from colleagues at workplaces or from classmates in educational institutions. Among the incidents, maximum numbers of them suppress those unhappy incidents, while fewer protest.
 A female student of computer science and engineering department of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) was sexually harassed by four students revealed on July 20 in a Facebook post of her batch-mate Hafijul Haque Chowdhury. The accused students are Zarif Hossain, Salman Sayeed, Zarif Ikram and Jaid Monwar Chowdhury.
The BUET authorities on July 28 formed a committee to investigate the allegation.
A study report revealed by Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation on April 19 this year said that some 69.48 per cent fall victims of sexual harassment through spreading exclusive private pictures and videos on the internet are being perpetrated by their close ones.
 Of them, 33.77 per cent of cases have affairs between the victims and offenders while in 35.71 per cent of cases the offenders are familiar with the victims.
 On September 12 in 2018, the gender platform submitted the draft of the law titled 'Sexual Harassment at Workplace Prevention Act, 2018' consisting of a total of 24 sections to the Law Ministry and the Labour and Employment Ministry.
As per the draft law, every organisation has to form a committee with 5-7 members where victims will be able to lodge their complaints within 30 days.
Acts of harassment or persecution, indecent proposals, comments or statements, stalking, and similar behaviour will be considered minor sexual offenses while physical harassment or similar acts, particularly through abuse of institutional or professional power, blackmail using images or videos, and distribution and marketing of such images or videos will be treated as major offenses.
The identity of the complainant should remain confidential and after investigation, the committee will suggest appropriate punishment for the offenders, it says.
Before this draft law, in 2010, the Law Commission had also drafted a law to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and in educational institutions consisting of a total of 21 sections while Justice Md Abdur Rashid was chairman.
The draft law provided for the formation of grievance committees according to the number of officers and employees in educational institutions or workplaces. The definition of sexual harassment has also been determined. A schedule identifying minor and major offenses separately was attached to the draft law.
But the draft law was not taken into cognizance by the authorities of the government.  In the verdict, the HC directed the government to make a law on the basis of the guidelines and ruled that the guidelines will be treated as law until the law is made.
The court directed the authorities concerned to form a five-member harassment complaint committee headed by a woman at every workplace and institution to investigate allegations of harassment of women. The majority of the committee members must be women, it ruled.
Advocate Salma Ali, a member of the NHRC's six-member committee and president of BNWLA told the Daily Observer that the law is needed to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and in educational institutions.
"The HC's guideline itself is a law in absence of the law enacted by a parliament but many institutions did not form the committee to prevent sexual harassment in the recent years," Salma Ali said.
The government must be given stress on the formulation of the law, she added.






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